An image processing apparatus that has been proposed (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-44245) has a filtering function. When a job is created and printed by a client device, the filtering function filters the job and is capable of changing the state of the job on the side of an image processing apparatus. Further, an image processing apparatus having a function (referred to as a “box function”) according to which a received job is not printed immediately but is saved in a storage area of an image processing apparatus has been realized. With the box function, an image read from a scanner, an image received by facsimile and an image obtained by expanding a print job from a client device can be stored on a hard disk or the like as a saved job. A saved job stored by the box function can be output by user operation performed at a user interface provided on an image processing apparatus. Further, the box function is such that when a saved job is output, it is possible to make an output setting different from that which prevailed when the job was generated by a client device (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-54656).
Thus, in a case where a job received by an image processing apparatus is a job saved by a box function, the settings can be changed on the side of the image processing apparatus when the saved job is output. If a job for which the settings have been changed by application of a filtering function has been saved by the box function, therefore, the job settings can be changed using a user interface on the image processing apparatus when the job is output. A problem which arises is that even in a case where an administrator has so arranged it by use of a filtering function that a print job is always printed on both sides of paper as for the purpose of reducing expenses, for example, the settings of a job saved by the box function can be changed to single-sided printing using the user interface on the image processing apparatus.
This problem is not limited to the filtering function. For example, in a case where a job that has been created by a certain user and saved by the box function of an image processing apparatus is printed with different settings by another user using the image processing apparatus, there is a possibility that the result of the printout will be different from the intent of the user who generated the job.
Further, in a case where a setting for printing an image in a 2-in-1 format (a state in which images of two pages are arranged side by side on a single sheet of paper) has been made by the filtering function, the images saved by the box function become images in the 2-in-1 format. If it is attempted to output (as by printing or fax transmission, etc.) such a saved job in a form in which the images are arranged on one page each, it is possible to enlarge the images by a setting made at the image processing apparatus and place one image on one page. In such case, however, images that have been reduced in size are enlarged. As a consequence, a decline in image quality is unavoidable and, depending upon the application of the saved job, a hindrance can result.